Govern Pub

The Square & Compass, Great Shelford, Cambridge

With a name like that, all common and everything, you’d expect to walk into this pub and find a sleepy-headed Landlord at the bar, with a couple of young waitresses darting about with drinks in that bird-like way they so often have in villages. And you’d be right, of course, the Square & Compass is indeed like that. But that’s not all it is, not by a long shot. No…Walk into the bar and you will find all the hallmarks More

What to look out for

I think that, in a way, finding your favourite local pub is a bit like searching for taxi insurance ni. It makes no real logical sense, has no rhyme nor reason to it, but somehow you’ll just know when the price is right.

The price, of course, needs to be under three pounds. Any more than that and you’re probably being ripped off. It’s worth taking note of how expensive the soft drinks are. Pubs buy Coca Cola in More

Enjoying the Fosters ads?

The people who produce the ads for Foster’s beer always seem to find a funny way to advertise Foster’s beer. These ads are funny because they often make fun of something or someone in a gentle way that is endearing. That’s why I always look forward to watching an ad for Foster’s beer on TV.

One Foster’s ad that you especially have to see is the ad that describes the Australian definition of “Yoga."It features several men packed into a More

Camden – a Mecca of quirkiness

It may be damned expensive (as is any European capital city), but London is one of the coolest places to hang out and grab a pint after a long day of organising US car support and numerous other of life’s little chores.

But in such a sprawling city, it can be bewildering to know exactly which area to hit on a good pub crawl. Oxford Circus is all well and good, featuring some very cheap and characteristic bars, but on More

Go North

Let’s face it; all of us Londoners will head up to Edinburgh for the Festival at least once in our lives. We’ll spend a long weekend in the middle of the summer, rushing from venue to venue to catch a disabled lesbian comic or a dark, new play about living room furniture. And we’ll probably see very little of the real city of Edinburgh.
I’d suggest taking at least a few hours away from the Festival venues and walking More

Review: The Quecum Bar and Brasserie

Battersea London awaits its customers with a bar and brasserie that has a refined style and atmosphere. Live music each night, the best food and many friendly faces is what you will find here on 42-44 Battersea, High Street in London.

The bar is renowned for its French style swing and jazz ambience, which goes as a tradition from as early as the 1930’s. With an average budget of £30, you can have a very pleasant dinner in Le Quecum Bar & Brasserie.

Live gypsy jazz programs entertain the customers on Sunday and Monday nights, while if you love swing jam, then Tuesday is the right evening for that. The place is romantic, it is retro, it is mysterious and it is fun. Wine enthusiasts will love this little spot of Parisian paradise, as the menu offers quite a comprehensive list of the best out there. You have until 10pm to go in for dinner, as that’s the time the last order is taken, and you can choose from a great variety of gourmet dishes: moules marinieres or snail plates are only a few of these.

Great dishes must be accompanied by great music, and you can definitely teleport yourself right into the Parisian streets just by listening to the guitar swing duo performances. The set in which the artists perform also borrows from the French in terms of colour and ambiance. Here you can indulge yourself into a very different slice of history, art and culinary experience.

Right in the mix that is London where there is many a corner sofas for sale and other ordinary delights, you can find French history, Parisian dishes, and true gypsy style jazz jam sessions. Such mannered bars and brasseries you can only find in Paris nowadays and almost nowhere else in Europe. If you arrive after 8pm, you will be charged an entrance fee, while if you arrive sooner, it is free. The club also has many members, who pay £60 on a yearly basis, and can enjoy the concerts all year long.

The Eagle, Chatham Road, London

Battersea’s Northcote Road on a Friday night always is full of twentysomethings in smart suits discussing the thrills and spills of their weeks at work and looking for cheap sofas in halogen-lit bar-restaurants. Many of these establishments are delightful (if busy), but there’s one watering hole in the area that goes against the grain with fantastic results.

The Eagle Ale House on Chatham Road was the Campaign for Real Ale’s runner-up for Pub of the Year in 2009, and many More

Pub Review: The Almer

Once upon a time, in the university city of Cambridge, a place that is viewed by almost everyone in the known world as inherently posh (and who can blame them for thinking it, it has more colleges than it does public houses…) there was a pub called The Almer. It was a pub and a half I can tell you. Tucked away down a side street, about ten minutes from the station, The Almer was (and is) a fine beauty More

The Empress: King Of Pubs!

Pubs are a very strange thing: there’s no set formula for creating the perfect one with that majestic pint-drinking atmosphere…it’s just something that happens. You can’t set out to create the ideal pub environment…no…it’s just something that grows organically from its surroundings. You can’t force it! I am very proud to say that my local pub is now The Empress. It’s a pub and a half to say the least.

From the street, a quiet residential one where nothing much More

The Ship

Isn’t it nice when you’ve lived somewhere for a while, but then you suddenly find a little gem tucked away somewhere?

That was my experience on Friday night when I went out with some friend’s from the public relations agency that I work for to a leaving party (for someone I’d never met, but that’s nothing to do with the story, really).

The do was at a pub just near Wandsworth Town rail station in London, on the banks of More